According to Times of India “ Seven Sikh candidates have taken the plunge into the Tamil Nadu poll scene this Lok Sabha elections, perhaps for the first time. The Bahujan Dravida Party, founded by Jeevan Singh Malla, known as Jeevan Kumar before he embraced Sikhism in January 2023, has fielded these Tamil-origin Sikhs.
All the seven aere part of a group of 200 from Tamil Nadu who spent time at the farm protest site at Delhi’s Singhu border in 2021. “Out of this group, 20 have embraced Sikhism recently…,” said Jeevan.
BDP’s candidates are the husband-wife duo of Rajan Singh from Kanayakumari and Seetha Kaur from Tenkasi, Selva Kumar aka Selva Singh from Tirunelveli constituency, Naga Vamsa Pandian Singh from Madurai, Korkai Palanisamy Singh from Virudhunagar, Manivasagam from Ramanathapuram, Asiriyar Shanmugasundaram Singh from Thoothukudi constituency.
Jeevan says his journey into Sikhism took years of study. “I first came to know about Sikh gurus from Osho’s discourses and studied Bhagat Kabir through him. I started focusing on Sikhism from 2014.
Learnt more about Sikhs while at Singhu: TN party founderJeewan said, "Later, I learnt that compositions of gurus and bhagats are put together in the Guru Granth Sahib. I came to know about Guru Gobind Singh from Bahujan Samaj Party’s founder Kanshi Ram after I joined the party in 1998. During my two-month stint at the Singhu border, I learnt more about Sikhs… and we made up our minds to become Sikhs.”
Giving a glimpse of his mission, Jeevan said that they had started a School of Miri Piri at Korampallam in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu. “We teach our cadres the philosophy of Sikh Gurus, Bhagats, Periyar and Kanshi Ram. It is actually aimed at providing a leadership development programme among SCs, STs and others,” he said
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